ABABU: RAILA HAS NEGLECTED MY PEOPLE FOR YEARS

Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba addresses his supporters at Masinde Muliro Univeristy’s Budalang’i Campus where he announced that he had resigned as ODM Secretary General. PHOTO | TONNY OMONDI

MP Ababu Namwamba has escalated his criticism of ODM leader Raila Odinga, accusing him of neglecting the people of Budalang’i constituency despite their unwavering support for a decade.

Reacting to reports that Mr Odinga would embark on a series of rallies in western Kenya next week, Mr Namwamba said that while he welcomes every national leader to his constituency, Mr Odinga will have to explain to the Budalang’i people why he has never visited them since 2007.

“It has been nine years since Raila came to Budalang’i to ask for votes when he was running for President in 2007. The people of Budalang’i voted for him and he did not even visit them when he was Prime Minister (in the Grand Coalition government),” he told reporters after a meeting with the German Ambassador to Kenya, Mrs Jutta Frasch, in Nairobi.

“I hope that when he visits, he will come with something that will change the lives of the people of Budalang’i.”

Mr Namwamba recently quit as the ODM Secretary-General and announced his intention to either form or move to a new party.

However, Mr Namwamba clarified that Mr Odinga’s visit in 2014 was to attend a burial, and not to meet with Budalang’i people, so for him, the visit didn’t count.

In 2008, when Members of Parliament were being sworn in after the disputed presidential election of 2007, Mr Namwamba swore allegiance to Mr Odinga, who later became Prime Minister in the Grand Coalition.

In the last month, however, he has been critical of Mr Odinga, accusing the ODM party leader of frustrating and undermining him.

Mr Odinga has planned a series of rallies in western Kenya, including Busia County, in an attempt to deal with rising dissent within his party caused by walkouts by several legislators including Mr Namwamba and his allies from the region. Mr Odinga is also facing a similar problem at the Coast.